thoughts, ideas and questions!!
#47863 - 03/04/04 08:32 AM
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Bobette
Reged: 03/04/04
Posts: 1
Loc: California
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Hello everyone!
I am new to this board, have been living with IBS-A for around 2 years now (most times under control, sometimes not). I left graduate school in 2000, unfinished. I was passing, but ran out of money and inspiration. All that was left was my research project. A few months back, I got in touch with my primary advisor and asked if it were possible to finish my project long-distance (I live in CA now and school is in CT). He agreed! I spoke to my bosses (I work for a pharmaceutical company) and they agreed to support me 100%. I can use all the facilities here to work on my research. While discussing ideas for a project, one of my bosses commented on how our company is looking to develop a drug for IBS. My eyes lit up and I just about jumped out of my chair I was so excited. My advisor specializes in Chron's and UC (a GI kinda guy!!), so he was very happy with the idea of am IBS project.
This brings me to my reason for this post. I would love any and all feedback from all of you. My current thoughts on the subject..... I have a handful of friends who have IBS. With most of them, their symptoms started following a period of serious stress, whether it be emotional or physical. For me, I had an EXCRUCIATING year emotionally, followed by a very bad back injury where I was in pain every single day for around 4 months straight. A couple months later my IBS symptoms started. The stress is now gone (I am extremely happy now), and the back pain is gone, but the IBS remains. My feeling is that stress, whether it be emotional OR physical (pain or illness of another sort) and constant exposure over a long period of time to the hormones related to stress cause permanent damage to the GI tract, and the body can no longer handle exposure to those hormones anymore....which is why stress is a main trigger for attacks.
What does everyone think? Any thoughts?
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I'm sure that some of the folks who have been here longer will have lots more ideas, but wanted to share mine. Heather says that a "gut insult" can trigger the start of IBS. Well, I have been under pretty major stress for at least 5-6 yrs, then I did a "bowel cleanse" program and have suffered from IBS-mostly D ever since. I'm a nurse with a high stress management position, in a very difficult marriage with a bi-polar in denial, and have infertility problems and PCOS. If you have any specific questions, or I can help in your research, I'd love to try.
Good luck and God bless you,
J Doe
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Hello im also new to the boards.My ibs started after i had my only child Sam.This came after being told we could not have childern.So many people have such a range of different problems.nice to talk. sharron.
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I'm also new to this board. I too feel my IBS was brought on by a very stressful period. It was last summer, when we were renovating our kitchen, i.e., doing most of the work ourselves including building the cabinets (my part as I am a fledging woodworker) PLUS having events in August and September (I am an event planner). I knew at the time that it was one of the most stressful times I had ever been through in my life. It wasn't until November that I decided to see a G-E about the dramatic changes in my bowel movements. I was really worried I had cancer or something. By January, after a colonoscopy, I was dx'd with IBS. I had several stable weeks, until I had an episode a few weeks ago over a stressful incident. So, yes, I do believe this whole thing was brought on by stress and I am also concerned that I am plagued with it even when I am feeling at ease.
Rae
Edited by OaklandRae (03/04/04 11:35 AM)
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Hi,
I read the reply about the gut insult and believe that is what happened to me. Last spring I got the flu and then a case of either food poisoning or a reaction to one of the medicines just as I was recovering. This was followed by D and finally the official diagnosis in the summer of IBS after the usual tests. I also think there is a definite stress link. Good luck with your research. bethg
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Hi.
My IBS started, as odd as it sounds, without me noticing it. That sounds pretty dumb even to me, considering the big deal it is now! But I was having D frequently in the AM and it just got worse and worse over the course of a year or two 'til the point I found myself running to the bathroom 10 to 12 times a morning!. Finally I had a really horrible acute attack that kept me out of work. Horrible.
Anyway, I believe that the original "gut insult" was a god awful stomach virus.
As for stress, I GUARANTEE you that stress is a major contributer to my IBS. It just edges out diet as a cause of my flare-ups. The only reason I can say that is that sometimes when I'm unstressed (ha! more acurately, "less stressed than usual.") I can eat more "bad" foods than I can when I'm particularly stressed (whether that be emotional stress or even stress from hot humid weather!).
Hope this helps somehow...
PS: Bobette, as a fellow sufferer of IBS-A, please give a girl some hope... Any chance this new drug they're working on might be suitable for us IBS-Aers, or is it going to be for either C or D? (Sucks to switch back and forth, anyway, but especially with no drugs targeted just for us!) 
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Interesting topic.
I came down with IBS in junior high school (30 years ago). As I recall, that was just about the time that my mom separated from my dad. Mom took me and my sis (dad took the other sis) and we moved to a 2 bedroom apartment. The traumatic thing for me was that I had to go to a new junior high school for 8th grade (and I'm the shy, introverted type). I remember I would get sick before tests, so I know that school was a stressor. My parents bought a new house and got back together the following year so I had to switch schools again for high school.
I don't blame my folks, but I think the separation, moving and switching schools twice in 13 months was emotionally difficult for me and I just internalized everything.
Janet
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Yes, I think you're on the right track about the relation between stress hormones and IBS. I, like you, had a year of severe emotional stress (let's just say that writing a yearlong thesis and applying to PhD programs and for international grants were the LEAST stressful things about that year). This was followed by secondary PTSD. Then just as the PTSD started to get better, I developed IBS. Most of the major stress is gone now, but still isolated stress triggers my attacks even when I've been stable, eating properly, and sleeping enough. Let us know how your research goes! And if you happen to invent a drug to help IBS-A, I'd be the first to buy it!
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--Julie
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For Bobette
#48078 - 03/04/04 06:25 PM
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Bevvy
Reged: 11/04/03
Posts: 5918
Loc: Northwest Washington State
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Well, this is an interesting thread. I don't know if I can offer much insight, but this is my BRIEF story:
I think my IBS came on me slowly. First it was pork that started disagreeing with me (1967), so I cut it out of my diet. Then it was red meat (circa 1977). I didn't know I had IBS until around 1980 when I freaked out every day after work before getting on the commuter bus, knowing I was stuck and couldn't get off the bus until the first stop, 2 hours away! Actually, it was that experience that I've blamed for my IBS -- that and the added stress of the high-power job -- but when I finally had to quit working (supposedly because of the stress), I realized that the stress I had at that time had nothing to do with the job or the "bus-prison," but the fear of having an attack.
Frankly, I thought I had a mental problem; I knew nothing about IBS. It was just 4 years ago that a fellow employee said to me, "I think you have IBS." I looked it up in the medical dictionary because I'd never heard of it except for brief notations in medical summaries that I used to transcribe and wondered about. I saw the doctor and asked for a referral to a GI. The GI was a jerk, very condescending, stuck on himself -- I hated him and refused to return. I decided I wasn't going to have IBS -- whatever it was -- and ignored it. When we sold our home in California and moved up here 3 years ago, I could no longer ignore it. I found a new doctor up here who said he thought I did indeed have IBS. His question to me was: "You're a perfectionist, aren't you?" Interesting -- because that's what my doctor in California asked me before he too told me he thought I had IBS. The answer to both was an undeniable YES. He sent me to a GI who finally gave me a colonoscopy and confirmed his diagnosis. He too was a jerk because I refused an operation that I did not need -- he told me to get my meds from my primary doctor and showed me the door.
While I've had two surgeries in my life, I can't attribute the IBS to either (although the first one -- in 1982) is suspect. Neither can I attribute my IBS to family stressors (although one particular serious incident in 1997 is suspect).
Your theory that "constant exposure over a long period of time to the hormones related to stress cause permanent damage to the GI tract, and the body can no longer handle exposure to those hormones anymore....which is why stress is a main trigger for attacks" is absolutely fascinating. I need to run this around in my mind awhile.
If anything else comes to mind, I'll re-post. Thanks, Bobette.
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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~letsrow/smily3481.gif">Bevvy
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